Why Distilled White Vinegar Is the Smelly Little House Elf We Love

March 16, 2025 admin No Comment 31 Views

I have enormous respect for multitaskers; I strive to be one myself. Years ago, when I learned from REAL SIMPLE that distilled white vinegar (the $2 stuff you buy in the condiment aisle) was a handy household cleaner—meaning you could use it to both cook dinner and clean up food stains from dinner—I fell in love a little bit.

Of course, vinegar’s many talents are old news to people with more worldly wisdom than I have. It’s been used as a cooking ingredient, cleaner, and preservative for thousands of years. For me, though, the idea that I didn’t have to use a chemical-laden commercial cleaner? That an all-natural solution was sitting in my kitchen (or would be, at least, once I bought it)? Mind-blowing.

The science is quite simple—well, as long as you don’t go deep into the chemistry of it all. In short, vinegar contains acid. Acid helps food taste good. It also helps break down dirt, mold, and mineral deposits. Distilled white vinegar, specifically, is a mix of 5% acetic acid and 95% water, with a pH of about 2.5. That makes it mild enough for consuming but powerful enough for several cleaning jobs.

Here’s the thing about multitaskers, though: They do many things decently but rarely anything perfectly. Distilled white vinegar is no exception. It has its flaws. For one, it stinks. I have not found a way around that issue, even if I add lemon juice or cut it with water. My coping mechanism has been to plug my nose and conjure happy childhood memories of decorating Easter eggs.

Second, at 5% acidic concentration, it’s not the world’s strongest cleaner. It has some antimicrobial properties but shouldn’t be considered a disinfectant. For slightly more oomph, you can go with cleaning vinegar, which has a 6% acidic concentration but still won’t protect you from the flu. (That extra acid also comes at a cost—cleaning vinegar is a horrific cooking ingredient.)

And finally, acid is corrosive, so it can damage parts of your home if you’re not careful. Here’s a list of things you should never clean with vinegar.

But again, I love a multitasker, however flawed. Perfection is overrated—another thing I’ve learned at REAL SIMPLE. It’s best to cast your ego aside and join in to do what you can, where you can. And distilled white vinegar, my smelly little house elf, has humbly helped me with so many chores. Let’s celebrate some of the surprising things it can do.

Things You Can Do With Distilled White Vinegar

Get Stickers Off the Floor

This thrilled and amazed me! A few weeks ago, my 6-year-old daughter decided to decorate our entryway floor with a giant packing label (I don’t know where she found it). Those things stick, as I learned after several minutes on my hands and knees. But then I dampened a dishcloth with distilled white vinegar, lay it on top of the label for maybe 10 minutes, and it peeled right off in a deeply satisfying single motion.

Refresh the Dishwasher

You want to be careful here, because acid is corrosive and can damage rubber parts of the appliance. But my KitchenAid manual recommends using vinegar to clean the dishwasher, so I go ahead every couple of months or so. I simply put a bowl of the stuff on the bottom rack and run the cycle. Does it do a deep clean? No. But it does nix some stains and deposits and make the inside gleam.

Remove Grease Stains From Your Shirt

If you dribble a little food on your clothes (not that I’ve ever done that), you can pretreat the stain with a 50-50 mix of white vinegar and water.

Descale the Coffeemaker

The acid in white vinegar can break down mineral buildup on my coffee maker, known as descaling. Over time, those deposits can keep the machine from working effectively. And I need it to work! So I add distilled white vinegar to the water carafe along with some water and run a cycle.